Pop Princess: The Girl Who Turned 300 Coke Cans Into A Work of Art

Four months,
three hundred empty cans of Coca-Cola and over a thousand tiny butterfly pins.

This was what it
took Paige Morgan, a fourteen old Year 9 student from Feilding High School in
New Zealand’s Manawatu district to make her award-winning wearable art
dress.

Inspired by her
favourite Pop Art artist Andy Warhol, and his iconic painting featuring
Coca-Cola cans and bottles, Paige created the dress for New Zealand’s 2013
EVENTO Wearable Art Show.

“The idea started
as a play on the term Pop Art, because sometimes Coca-Cola is also referred to
as pop, so I thought it would be a great idea to make something out of Coke
cans,” said Paige. “I also really like a Pop artist called Andy Warhol who used
Coke cans in his artwork.”

With some help
from local metal recyclers, Paige spent months collecting cans, and tirelessly cutting
the tops and bottoms off then flattening them out and connecting them with
butterfly paper clips. Once the dress was assembled she used duct tape as
lining so she could wear it on stage in front of more than 1000 guests who
attended on the night.

“I was so nervous
when I was waiting back stage that I was shaking, but it was alright once I
came out onto the stage because we’d been shown how to walk down the different
cat walks,” Paige said. “There were some amazing outfits, and I made some
excellent new friends on the night.”

Not only did her dress win
the Year 9 design award at EVENTO, she also wore the dress while hosting New
Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key, when he visited Feilding High School
following the award.

Paige’s interest
in wearable arts started when she was in primary school when she made a dress
out of milk containers for a wearable art class project with the help of her
mother Megan Morgan. She has also made outfits out of ribbons and christmas
decorations.

“Paige has been
arty from as far back as I can remember, when she was in kindergarten the other
kids might be playing in the sandpit and she would go straight to the craft
table,” Megan said. “She has learned so much through this whole experience, and
I hope one day she’ll be able to make a career out of her creativity.”